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arXiv · 1712.09959

How not to establish the non-renormalizability of gravity

Juliusz Doboszewski·Niels Siegbert Linnemann
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Abstract

General relativity cannot be formulated as a perturbatively renormalizable quantum field theory. An argument relying on the validity of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula aims at dismissing gravity as non-renormalizable per se, against hopes (underlying programs such as Asymptotic Safety) that d-dimensional GR could turn out to have a non-perturbatively renormalizable d-dimensional quantum field theoretic formulation. In this note we discuss various forms of highly problematic semi-classical extrapolations assumed by both sides of the debate concerning what we call The Entropy Argument, and show that a large class of dimensional reduction scenarios leads to the blow-up of Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.

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Juliusz Doboszewski, Niels Siegbert Linnemann. 2017-12-28. How not to establish the non-renormalizability of gravity. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-017-0136-x

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